Where There's Smoke: Steamy Instalove Firefighter Romance (Cedar Falls Fire & Rescue) by Kelsie Calloway

Author:Kelsie Calloway [Calloway, Kelsie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-03T06:00:00+00:00

ELEANOR

I can hear myself babbling, but I don't care. Between the bourbon and the incessant cat facts, I'm trying my damnedest to calm my nerves. I wish that I was poised and confident, but I can't keep my mouth from running.

"Elle," Nixon cuts in, "are you going to be finished soon?"

I shove a piece of meatloaf into my mouth and chew slowly. They say you should chew each bite thirty-two times. While I've never subscribed to that theory, I do right now. There's hardly anything left to swallow when I'm finished; it's all masticated and thoroughly broken down. "This is really good."

Nixon stifles a laugh. "Are you nervous?"

All of these questions are making me warm, or maybe that's the bourbon. "No," I tell him, following the response up with a scoop of mashed potatoes. There's nothing to chew here thirty-two times, but I'll give a shot.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Nixon lowers his fork onto the plate and watches me carefully. "Because if this is about what I said yesterday, then

—"

I swallow the mashed potatoes in my mouth and clear my throat to cut him off. "Of course it's about what you said yesterday!" If he thought it was anything else, he's as daft as they come. "You don't go around threatening to spank people because you feel like it," I tell him with a glare.

Nixon rolls his eyes at me. "Eleanor, are you really going to pretend like you had no part of that?"

I knew it would all come back to this. "I don't know what you're talking about." I start piling more mashed potatoes on my fork and averting my gaze. "I was doing my friend a favor and then the next thing I know, you were acting like a disappointed dad."

"Oh, please," he scoffs. "You had as much to do with this as I did. You intentionally started a fire, Elle. And sure, perhaps I should have written that in the report instead of blackmailing you or whatever you called it yesterday."

"Extortion," I remind him. "You threatened to turn me in or turn me over your knee."

With a raised eyebrow, Nixon gives me a serious look. "And you're saying you wouldn't have deserved either of those things?"

When he says it like that, sure, I can see what he means. Legally he should have told his Chief that I'd started the fire on purpose. I could have gotten a fine or something, but at least I wouldn't be in this situation. On the other hand, now I'm in the boat of getting out of the legal issue while finding myself still being punished. It's less expensive to submit to Nixon's demands, but a bit more humiliating. "I just think that maybe there was a better way we could have gone about this," I say stubbornly.

"Eleanor, you broke the law. This isn't like the games we played when we were kids. This is something you could have gotten into serious trouble for." Nixon gets up from the table and frowns down at me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.